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NATIONALITY versus SECTIONALISM. 



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AN ESTIMATE OF THE POLITICAL CRISIS, 

THE . 

POLICY OF THE PRESIDENT, 

ASD THE 

ANOMALOUS LEGISLATION OF THE THIRTY-NINTH CONGRESS, 

"WITH AS 

APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE 

ON THE 

DUTIES AND DANGERS OF THE HOUR. 



By J. B. FERGUSOX, of Tenn. 



Keoonciliation, suitable rights to capacity, respect and education to incapacity, are 
our guarantee for the perpetuation of American freedom. 



U 



WASHINGTON, D.. C: 

McGILL & ■nrcIlEROW, PRINTERS AND STEREOTIPEKS 

t 1866. 



.F5 6 



ADDRESS. 



Atn fall mectiog of the National Union Clnb of Washington, D. C, on Wednesday, May 1, 1866, Hon. A. W. Ris- 
DA LL, of Wisconsin, in tlie Chair, on motion of Hon. Grees Clay Sshth, of Kentucky, Dr. J. B. Ferguson was 
unanimously reiiuested to address the Club on tlie questions of the day. 

Dr. FERGUSON responded as follows: 

The condition of our country and the progress of our time bring home to every reflect- 
ing mind consequences that outweigh all our estimates of mere ])artizan policy and sec- 
tional aggrandizement. Our history allbrds no parallel to the present condition of our land 
and country. The strife for place, retention of power, and dominant di.sposal of office and 
emolument, fade into insignificance before tlie questions that condition involves. A mighty 
people in the strength and prestige of unity have asserfed in theory and demonstrated by 
power that no State or number of States can throw ofl their allegiance to the parent Gov- 
ernment. By success of arms and dearly -bought victory they have triumphed signally 
and effectually over all armed opposition, and thus saved and demonstrated the unity of 
the nation. Peace has smiled again over the desolate fields, the charred towns, and broken 
hopes of the misguided, and the prospect of inhabiting anew a common country, with pros- 
perity unequaled and influence unbounded, has renewed its promise and spread wide its 
nope. With the return of peace, amid the diversity of opinion and interest that must ever 
characterize a free and powerful people, all sincere lovers of their country and their kind 
were ready to hail every honest effort on the partof a successful and triumphant government 
to secure the benefits of an unbroken allegiance even to the withered and the lost. But 
amid the gratulations of success, and the new enthusiasm of life and hope everywhere jubi- 
lant, in the strength and freshness of victory, what do we behold to-day ? 

Why, sir, we are still in revolution, not to say rebellion, so far as the action of a domi- 
nant faction in Congress is concerned, and the country threatened anew with all the dread 
realities of anarchy, war, and outlawry, in the array of one department of the Government 
against another, and the attempt to perpetuate alienation and disunion at the very moment 
wt had demonstrated its fallacy in argument, its futility in power. 

Eebelliou ! — there is none in the once insurgent States, but a lawful acquiescence to the 
autliority of the Government. But revolution, the most fatal to human liberty andhappi- 
ness, in a civil warfare by a disafl'ected faction against the Government, exists, and we can- 
not, dare notdfsguise the fact. ^ 

If this be true, it is well to know it, for we cannot shrink from its issues nor evade it3 
consequences. Disrupting agents and agencies of such a character as the present Con- 
gress f)resents are more dangerous to human liberty than the armed hosts upon a field of 
battle. They seek to defraud an honest and confiding people out of the just meed and re- 
wards of blood-bought victory, and in the same spirit, though more insidious and dastardly 
than that manifested by armed rebels. The course of the majority in Congress is revolu- 
tionary, and we as a people are compelled to meet it or disaster inevitable awaits us. Let 
us state concisely and plainly the ground on which we make so serious a charge. 

The recent war for the Union was waged on the ground that no State can retire from the 
federal compact or throw oflf its allegiance. It was successful in the vindication of this 



assumption and the maintenance of the integrity of the Union. The insurgents laid down 
their arms, and the arts and duties of peace were everywhere resumed ^ The States failing 
to make effectual tlieir severance, and in failure surrendering all their power as a sepa- 
rate organization against their own life and that of the nation accepted all the terms a 
victorious government imposed as the result of war, even to the entire change of their 
domestic institutions ! They gave up their slaves and surrendered their arms. They were 
invited to revivify the functions of State life and return to the benehts of an allegiance 
thev could not throw off. And what is the result? , , . , .^ . ., , , c. 

They are held to allegiance by the issues of war and denied its privileges and benefits 

'° ■^liat' I a«k is more revolntionary ? To declare that a State or States have not the right 
to di'J'iolve their allegiance, and in liolding allegiance are entitled to certain rights and 
benefits while they are denied those rights and benefits. In one breath they deny their 
rioht to'dissolve their allegiance, and then, when allegiance is secured, say they shall not 
be^recrarded as entitled to its benefits. And on this inconsistency of claim and denial they 
demand of tho«e States what is utterly incompatible with the national benefits decreed as 
common by the Federal Union. Why it is an anomaly in physical law. It takes parts to 
make a whole. A part lopped off or severed is a destruction of the whole. To say that 
a part cannot cease to bo a part, and demonstrate it by force of arms tin a thousand hard 
fought fields of bloody conflict, and then decree that it shall not have the sustenance or 
benefit of its bein» a part, is to say it shall not have the benefit of its own existence. It 
is revolution ■ notfiing less; and we must meet it, or the "rave of humanity will close 
over us and over the efi'orts of all past ages to secure individual right and the protection 
of human action. Most fortunate is it, then, that in a crisis of such fearful meinwe have a 
President and Cabinet fully alive to the great issues involved and the responsibilities attached. 
Most provi'ient is it that in Andrew Johnson is blended the elements of the man and states- 
man. Standing erect in the full dignity of the one. and acting with all the sagacity of the 
other, the people will see him, in the full magnitude of his oihce, not shrinking from the 
issues' this congressional faction would force on the country, not evading the duties they 
make necessary, but boldly and yet considerately marching to the mastery of the ever 
fatal clamor of faction, and that with the solicitude of a patriot and the will of a hero. 
A President to be free must be bol* He must be a leader, and not led ; he must not 
hesitate to take the game his enemies and the enemies of the country propose into his own 
hands, and play it for all it is, worth. They have needlessly made the issue. They have 
despised all the warnings of the past, all the hopes of the present, and made that issue so 
broad, and the ground so open, it allows of no reconciliation. They have ignored the 
ada^e' " a small amount of precaution is worth a multitude of efforts after the bird has 
flo-\Tn."- They have compelled him to interpose between their assumptions of unwarranted 
and dangerous power and the liberties of this great people. He must turn all the power 
of his high oflice and the prerogative of his constitutional authority against the revolu- 
tionary and destructive policy they would inaugurate. He must do this, not to destroy 
their equal rights as citizens, or their endowed rights as members of a great branch of the 
Government, but that the blessings of liberty may find an abode where wretchedness has 
been so recently thrust. It is here there can be no compromise. He is clearly right, and 
right can hold no compromise with wron^. Eulc or ruin was their watch-word. Rule, 
therefore, to avoid ruin must be his. And the whole element of power that thoughtful 
and reflecfiva. patriots wield whenever our cherished liberties are endangered is coming up 
to sustain tlie country's saviour in this the hour of peril. Not alone as a man of firmness 
and decision — as a statesman of sagacity and wise discrimination — does he stand before 
us, but as the representative of an indwelling principle that develops in all the sense of 
justice and the trust of right committed to humanity at large. The nation has passed 
.through a fiery ordeal. The Union survives, and all its parts live to perpetuate its power 
and benefits. Con.stitutional liberty has not been overthrown. Republican right— which, 
in its just definition, is simply a right to have a right — lives and shows itself an element 
of nature that must forever live with the masses. They will sustain it. Our President — 
tlieir President, vitalized by their life — ever a hero in triumph over the fatal clamor of 
faction in his entire political career, must and will continue to refiect its ulterior designs. In 
him concentrates all those elements so essential to the solution of this important problem. 
Nature's economy never received more inestimable privileges in her inspired soul than at tlie 
present time. Itis within his province to maintain and perpetuate them. Thegleamings are 
alreadv upon the house-tops of this nation that must inevitably set tie her destiny. He was first 
to catch tihem, and in their increasing light he is leading it forth from the long night of storm 
and desolation in which so much was imperiled, so many were bewildered and lost. It is no 



mere figure of speech, it is no exaggeration of estimate that I indulge ; nay, it is the bright- 
est, caltaest, holiest edict of my intuitional nature, confirmed by long and varied observa- 
tion, that leads me to say the epoch of ages has never rolled together so vast a multitude 
of events a-s in my humble judgment are now culminating to destroy the last hope of aian 
for self-adjustment to all that is worthy of the nam?, of government or associated right. 
And what do I mean by self-adjustment? I moan to say that God, nature, all that i?, 
' speaks of man as an identity, an individuality. We, as a people before the world, and 
against the most powerful forms of adiiesiveness, concentration, and despotic power, have 
demonstrated his right and heritage in self-government. If so ; if man is an individualit}', 
a creation, holding his reality and co-relation to all nature, his office is, what? — creative 
adjustment of all relations, domestic, social, and political. This being undeniably so, we 
may well pause and ask how far have we, as a people, progressed, attained, developed from 
the cause that gives life, in order to inherit its benefits ? For myself I make answer, how- 
ever measured that answer must be. We have seen that we cannot be free ourselves only 
as we give' freedom to all whose nature opens to demand and secure its privileges. We 
cannot give freedom to incapacity, but we can provide for the growth and unfolding of all 
capacity of all races and conditions committed to our care. We cannot make a child a 
man, but we can protect his childhood and allow nature in her own time to unfold his 
manly attributes and power; and, when thus unfolded, we must allow province of action. 
'We cannot with impunity make privileged classes of any division of our own people, no 
matter how tinted by nature's wise painting, but we can legislate so a.?, to deny justice to 
none, not even the least. We cannot make a white man a black man, but we can protect 
the one from the rapacity of the other. We cannot change the marked differences of nature, 
but we can and must adapt our administrative capacity to them, so that instead of being 
arrayed in hostile and destructive conflict, they may in our system, as in nature's, fill their 
place and make their contribution to the good of the whole. We cannot deny the rights 
and benefits of States or parts of our body politic to give benefits or peculiar privilege to 
men whose color differs from our own, but we can preserve the one and do no injustice to 
the other. 

With these easily recognized facts and principles, do any ask. Is the President right f I 
answer unhesitatingly, yes. Why? Eight, it should be remembered, is often a mere con- 
ventionality and form, made up to suit the exigencies of jiassion and party as the fastidi- 
ousness of sentiment or circumstances may require. But when we contemplate right, as 
denied to none, we are enabled to consider its significance. Then it is not a mere man or 
class that determine its bearings and ministration; but a principle that develops Nature, 
or God if you rather, in man, in the measure of his capacity and opportunity, in unison with 
the trust committed to humanity. And here it is with pride and pleasure I contemplate 
our President. He has practically secured freedom to the millions enslaved. He has dona 
this without destroying 'or paralyzing the arm of pov/er that is a part or portion of the 
unity of the whole. He has not invaded the constitutional balances of our system of 
government — not even to secure the natural claims of a hitherto depjendent and oppressed 
race. The sti-ength of our attainment in liberty and right is not sacrificed and destroyed 
to give right to others. While a benefit is conferred, a greater one is not lost. The negro, 
in other words, is freed ; but States are not destroyed to secure it ; the republican form of 
the national power is not abrogated or made to give place to an assumption of unconstitu- 
tional invasion of the rights of States. 

Is the President right f He said iu the Senate, when it required loyalty to principle 
and the heroism of manhood, as well as statesmanlike wisdom to say it, that this Union 
cannot be destroyed, either by secessionism or radicalism. Time has vindicated the truth 
of the one, and to-day he' stands a mighty bulwark of strength, clothed in the panoply of 
executive prerogative, to demonstrate that radicalism cannot do what secessionism failed to 
accomplish. 

Is he right f Our fathers rebelled from stamp duties and taxation without representation. 
What is our condition to-day ? Tax gatherers are as thick as mile posts on the road to the 
ruin of those they seek, whiie representation is denied the exhausted and impoverished 
people thus taxed ! This revolutionary faction at the same time in an anomalous Congress 
allow no voice from this taxed people to hold in check the rapacious desire of accumulated 
hatred or misconception that has arisen from circumstances so diverse in their effects, so 
lamentable in the soluble evidence of a practical solution. 

Is he right* This faction has offered to him the bribe — I do not say they intended it as 
such — of almost unlimited power over the liberties of millions of people, and he has declined ; 
and still they seem not to know that a patriotic President is right in refusing to be, under 
that disguise, a despotic and unrestricted monarch. 



6 

Isherinhtf The Constitution of the United States says emphatically and explicity : 
" The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, and 
each Senator shall have one vote" Two Senators from my State, duly elected by a loyal 
le^'islature are here, have been here from the opening of the session, or the organi'zation of 
the present Senate. „ „ . tt ,, ■ i .■ i 

Are they a part of it ? No! Have they a vote? No! Here then is revolution ; and 
the President, who, as Senator resisted secession, as Military Governor fought it and sus-" 
tained the Government in Tennessee against an armed and powerful foe, now as President 
of the United States holds in check this direct and palpable violation of that Constitution 
which alone makes a Senate ! 

Is he right? He stands for freedom to all of whatever condition or color, and he shows 
that it is not an impracticable abstraction he means. It is not the denial and desolation of 
one class that another may be placed in an aristocracy over them. It is not a vain effort to 
destroy the marked difi'erences of nature. It is simply justice denied to none ! There can 
iie no other freedom. Faction, dissatisfaction, caste, color, precedents, power, parly may 
be appealed to, but in the light of truth, of nature, of eternal right, how can a living nation 
hold its life throes for humanity's good within its grasp in any other way? I ask the 
sincere lovers of their country of every distinction to pause here, and ask themselves is 
not the President right, when he seeks justice to the colored, while he does no injustice to 
the white divisions of our people ? 

Is he right f Why, if he is sustained in this upright, patriotic, philanthropic course, who 
does not see that we are on the high road to be as natnre, and nature's God designed us, a 
nation of nations, the culmination of nationalities, powers, and future dispensatories of 
good to those unborn ; while if we must destroy the unity we have kept in so much disas- 
trous peril, we degenerate into little petty States in ceaseless conflict over differences that 
make us less tlian men, while as a government we will deserve scarcely a memory amongst 
the efforts of men for liberty and fraternity. 

Is the President right f What war demanded, peace does not demand. What an 
enemy in armed and serried hosts required at our hands, peace does not require. 
Then we were compelled, reluctantly it may be said, to meet a foe in the asser- 
tion of all the power, influences, and agencies we could command. Its exigenciea 
required, and a true and brave people yielded, what seemed the assumption of uncon- 
stitutional and arbitrary measures. These were war. It were folly, nay madness, to 
temporize in war. But when peace extends her blooming olive, and the hoarse blast 
of the tempest is heard no more, then if we are equal to nature, if we are men, we will 
no longer invade the sacred rights of him who was even an enemy Peace requires an 
end of crimination. We must cease to point South or North. If we continue it, we only 
prove ourselves a faction ; less than a patriotic or manly party — less than men. The Pres- 
ident proclaims peace ; peace not at the sacrifice of nationality, not in a further invasion 
upon human rights, or a sacrifice of State allegiance. Peace upon the basis of nature. 
That while geographical lines may bo passed, and even domestic institutions can be 
changed, we cannot invade natural and guarantied rights in peace; rights that make the 
unity of our strength, nay the very existence of our nation, merely to gratify the lust for 
power, and the grasping ambition of the would be gods of an hour. 

Is the President rightf Let us do justice to all, and we will not fail to see that he is. 
Many of the children of this Republic, men distinguished for talent, patriotism, and even 
heroism, whom the nation would delight to honor, nave been born not through uniformity 
of growth and strength, but by powerful radical bias. There has been a class of such radi- 
cal reformers in every age of the world. There is one in the present. The misfortune is 
they carry with them their destructive proclivities, and not the constructive ones. The 
common landmarks kept into their path are those of fire: ruins! Like meteors they 
plough a single furrow, and are scorclied in the flames of their own fierce kindling, dying 
to consolidate a larger mould. Our President offers that larger mould, and* that it may 
be perpetual, he offers it to all by being true to all ! God, the great designer, seems to have 
ordained it and prepared it from Uie most passion-stained strife. Can we find more hon- 
orable employment, more patriotic devotion, or more philanthropic exercise.of our powers, 
than to seek to adapt out national mould to all, so that we may retain our people of every 
condition and color, and thus secure all the benefits which bounteous nature has committed 
to our care ? And who needs to be told after our sad lesson of war that this can only be 
done by recognizing the just claims of each part of our common body politic. 

Is he right? Why he stands upon the great pedestal of Washington, the Father of his 
Country, whose memorable warnings span the giant strides of our time, and now bring us 
to appease the anguish of our souls in our sectional, selfish, not to say hypocritical assump- 



tions over the rights and consciences of our neighbors. He stands with all our patriot 
heroes of the past to withstand every inroad which passion, frenzy, and lust of power mako 
upon the rights of States and the hopes of mankind. And there he will stand, clearly 
defined — a fixed point against this night of desolation, and from the chaotic ruins of what 
was once a mighty temple of freedom, he will hold out to all, even the most enslaved and 
misguided, the outlines of a new national life. 

The tendencies of all revolutions bear striking comparison to a person being lost in a 
wilderness. The objective point in both instances is much further off than we at first 
imagined. The journey to be made is a laborious one. We solicit all whom we meet for 
the necessary information guiding us to a certain point, and many whom we do not soli- 
cit suggest new roads to us gratuitously. Such is the condition of the faction in Congress. 
Many plans have been suggested, and received because they were completely bewildered, 
if not lost. The result is they have no confidence in any, and the people are at last dis- 
appointed in their elected guides, and stand aghast at their determination to destroy all 
the constitutional helps that have carried them thus far on the road. They pass from one 
point to another, and stop at innumerable intermediates by the way, and when the objec- 
tive is gained it is no longer familiar to them. Most fortunate is it then, that our great 
leader saw it distinctly aruid all their confusion ; pointed it out to all whose eyes were not 
blinded by the plamour by the way, and now most strenuously will he claim from these 
madmen, with wliom he has to deal, the fulfillment of the bond! 

It would we well to ask, what do these men propose? As yet, nothing, unless it be to 
repel rebels from their forum. Hence they ask most vociferously, did men ever hear of equal 
terms being given to a conquered foe ? I answer, nobody ever heard it. Hence rebellions are 
ever occurring. The cause is never removed. Legal disabilities are ever imposed upon 
revolutionists in the Old World, and therefore revolutions ever return. What has rebellion 
cost Eussia, Austria, England? What will radical government of rebels cost us? Were 
it not restrained it would cost us our nationality. We vaunt our superiority to monarchic 
nations. Never was there a grander opportunity to show it. Sublimely does our Presi- 
dent vindicate the principle of reconciliation as superior to revolution, and the world will 
recognize his full and complete triumph over frenzy and passion. 

THE TIEESOJIE DEBATES AND AHAIIOLOCS LEGISLATION IN CONGRESS. 

You, sir, and the country must feel the intolerable bore of such lengthy debates upon 
theories and abstractions, and especially when the nation realizes so unmistakably that 
its present life chapter is one of facts. If we desire to show ourselves patriots and states- 
men, why not cease at once to give utterance to those hackneyed criminations and recrimi- 
nations which are but the outbirth of passion and should have ceased with the war. The 
political womb of necessity has given birth to an issue that must be practically dealt with 
and disposed of. Our material estate is an undivided one. Any attempt to despoil 
American citizenship of its primitive rights under the Constitution amounts simply to 
gross usurpation, and reverses the action of that broad principle upon which the war for 
ressoration was successfully prosecuted. Capacity appropriates to itself certain right's and 
privileges, and if they are not held equal and indivisible the entire structure of nationality 
is but a fable. If the nature of one State's political relationship with another is such as 
does not admit of dismemberment at will, it is an insult to common sense to deny privi- 
leges accruing from such a forced hospitality. It is not consistent to assume two separate 
guises : the one as a civilian, the other as some criminal who has forfeited all rights but 
that of meek endurance to servitude and tyranny. 

It is by no means a question of policy, but^one of principle, which is presented before 
the American freemen. The arguments used against thosse who have been in armed hostiltjr 
to the Government, and in support of the adoption of those radical measures which; if 
carried out, would reduce the complexion of State organizatign to mere colonial vassallage, 
are as inimical to the restoration of peace, as treasonable in design, to the letter and spirit 
of the Constitution, as the crime it proposes to furnish. If there exist not enough righteous 
men in Sodom to preserve it from destruction, such miserable political humbuggery cannot 
be so substituted as to effect its salvation. 

We do not derive the elements of Government from the artificial usages of States in their 
organized capacities. Man never was the product of political necessity, legislative enact- 
ment, or State policy. Do not understand this declaration to imply the repudiation of 
civil conformity necessary to organization and order ; but simply as afiirming the doctrine 
of self-government, with a perceptive faculty to appreciate justice and resist usurpation. 
This is the only cohesive element in American politics to-day. If we do not trust it longer 
an inevitable dissolution is at hand. 



Trace, if you will, the origin of those inevitable political c^fficulties which have swayed 
the most powerful dynasties of the world, which have deposed kings, princes and senators, 
as berries are plucked from their parent stem, and you at once discover the inharmony to 
have originated in small communities, and incurred by the disregard of some sweeping 
ordinance, fulminated inimical to Constitutional cotiditions. While, therefore, I appreciate 
the offices of government; the propriety of invested authority in a head, and consider it 
the only practical method for a oneness in nationality and name, our perceptions cannot 
be so blind as to overlook those palpable outbursts of perversion and misrule that fan the 
sparks of revolution until their lurid glare and fervent heat dissolve the unitary links of 
a nation to nothingness and ruin. 

When you minister to versatility you cannot totally disregard geographical conditions. 
A conservative legislation should be evenly exerted upon those who are its recipients, not 
tempered with extreme laxity or dogmatical coersive method; affirming only those princi- 
ples of government which clearly declare their intention to serve a whole without detri- 
ment to a part. In this manner are general and local interests harmonized. _ 

The mineral resources, serial productions, the immense area of territory, with those un- 
developed resources of earth, sea, and forest, all bespeak a varied interest that must call 
into requisition the talents, energies, and labors of a great people ; quickening the revolu- 
tions of machinery, vitalizing the brain with progressive ideas and mechanical creations. 
We have these advantages over all people, and'of them we may justly and gratefully 
boast. Still it requires a most .vigilant guardianship of executive power to direct and 
preserve their greatest culminations. Nominally, only, do they possess features in contra- 
distinction to each other. They must bo fed from, those native springs of power from 
whence originally their source was derived, or a conflict is at once inaugurated, the ulti- 
mates of which threaten a most disastrous disintegration. 

It is impossible to curse and bless in the same breath. We cannot extend the olive 
branch of peace in one hand, and threaten with the other. The incipient into^nations of 
thunder from such a moving mass of radicalism, with its vituperative eloquence, does not 
by any means convince us of the necessity of sustaining suicidal measures for the protec- 
tion of Government against unarmed enemies. Such senseless caprices would have their 
executive agent to issue his proclamations through two separate strains, representing 
respectively the North and tiie South. Through the former, incongruous legislation. 
Through the latter a sirocco of hatred and venom. Our present Executive, however, re- 
fuses to take up either one of t' - 3 strains separately — prefers to speak through them both 
in the same respiration — heacj his tone is national. Be acU for a nation, and not for 
a section ! 

A war of races. Jacobin clubs, and organized bands of assassins, that secrete themselvea 
within the public edifices of the land to smite down those who do not administer freely 
to partizan zeal, are to be avoided. Such make no suitable shield for the defense and 
maintenance of American liberty. The earth is already strewn with dead veterans. Let 
us hallow their resting places by sustaining the principles for which they offered them- 
selves for sacrifice. A house divided against itself cannot stand ; and as we all belong to 
one domestic household, and are quite familiar with each other's disposition, would it not 
be better to dress old wounds than to open new ones? 

The Constitution, as declared by war's ultimatum, does not admit of~ a divorce upon 
the ground of incompatibility of temper. Such a decree has for the present decided the 
question of treaJon by defeating its organization. Were it brought witnin the jurisdiction 
of civil courts, as a case to be prosecuted, and upon which to obtain a decision, it would 
be found very diificult to define and suitably ^nmxsh. And it must bo done by such a pro- 
cess, or the question is buried beneath the irrevocable decreee already passed. The 
decision of battle is by all means preferable, especially as our public code is at fault in 
correctly delineating a case never placed upon its dockets in its present guise. 

The amnesty offered by President Lincoln ; the terms of capitulation upon which General 
Lee surrendered to General Grant ; and the apprehension of Mr. Jefferson Davis, are three 
political antipodes that involve us in endless argumentation and perplexity. The charac- 
ter of all political movements where their tendencies are revolutionary, are decided in ao- 
' cordance with the number of adherents. At least such has been the case in the present 
instance. We offered freely national grace and clemency to a legion of traitors — afterwards 
we gave them liberal terms of surrender. It is, therefore, paradoxical to apply the test to 
isolated cases. Vindication of national honor has been asserted in triumpn of our arms. 
The attempted dissolution of our Government has been practically decided a failure. 

Theories are therefore out of season. There is really but one new outbirth or question for 

settlement before the people. The war has changed slaves into freemen. Many years 



9 

elasped from their first importation in this country before they were declared free. The 
lapse of these years was necessary before tlie present change in their status could bs 
wrought. They are not an antagonistic element to our domestic economy and peace. 
They have added to and shared in our agricultural and commercial prosperity of tlie past; 
they must contribute to it in the present and future, if higher law legislation will permit 
them to earn the privileges of suffrage in the same ratio in which they have earned the 
right of freedom. Withholding none of those gifts which pertain to the elevation of one 
divine, humanity and broad nationality, we must at tlie same time preserve a sleepless 
vigilance by placing competency upon guard that it may defend civil rights without com- 
muting political enormities. 

WHAT IS A UNITED GOVERNMENT? 

^ The united Government of the United States is an incorporated body of State sovereign- 
ties. They are the great arteries that feed the body politic. They possess within them- 
selves the organs and functions of domestic economy and political life. Separate State 
action is necessary to the reconciliation of those varied interests that affect her internal 
peace and safety; consummating the great elementof some publicnationality for which .and 
by whose agency law is executed and private enterprises are protected. There is nothing 
in this incompatible with the maintenance of beneficial reciprocal relations between these 
separate republican provinces. 

Upon the other hand, all measures tending in the least degree to State disenfranchise- 
ment by non-representation in Congress, are not only inimical to public peace, but con- 
trary to a procedure upon which constitutional principles are pledged. War disorganizes, 
but does not destroy the functions of civil government. It holds in abeyance for tie time 
being, by virtue of its military necessities, the domestic and legal operations otherwise so 
rigorously exercised. .The question under reflection, and upon which is involved a decision 
of great importance to all intelligent freemen who know their rights and privileges and 
would dare maintain them, is the present attitude of those States formerly at variance 
■with the Federal Government. Here wo have to do with facts and not theories. Physi- 
cally, morally, and politically considered, we are in possession of .all those indispensible 
requisites essenti.al to the perpetuity of civil legislation, order, and execution. Communi- 
ties of people retain a sound constituency to principle and idea. By the use of their ballot 
they select and confirm to office those in whom they confide their trust, m.aking public 
servants of their neighbors and friends. What more? They conform fully to the condi- 
tions of peace by restoring the offices of State to their former organization of judicial 
power. More than this cannot be done. Were it less than this we need not fear to be 
regarded as arbitrary and dictatorial in proposing to do it for them. 

The physital sinews of war crushed a rebellion. Congress to-day or to-morrow is as 
capable of protecting itself aoain.st the inroads of disloyalty threatening their government 
as the former. There is not the slightest occasion for any alarm whatever because our 
southern cousins are disposed to be tree-thinkers upon political sttbjects. Were it not for 
the partisan leaders in Congress, who are the most successful political alarmists the country 
has ever produced, I am confident the masses of the people would feel perfectly secure. 
Our«political catechism, like our religious creeds, are, as a matter of course, somewhat 
varied. Embracing, as it does, all classes and grades of mental organism and political 
temperament, it could not be otherwise. It may be an erroneous idea on my part to place 
such high practical estimate upon existing diversities. I consider t(tiem an equipoise for 
the preservation of principle. Centralization of power cannot exist within their atmos- 
pheric influence. Oligarchy is brought to sackcloth and ashes whenever a war of ideas is at 
once thoroughly inaugurated. Extremes, whether developed in climate, soil, latitude, or 
ideas, are sure indications of a temperate zone in existence somewhere. The people from 
whom the rights of all governments are derived, if they are only true to their after con- 
victions, which the maturing hand of time presents "before them, smoothing down the 
asperities of passion and obliterating the localisms of prejudice, eventually realize the 
truisms of government that ministers to all and proscribes none. Let us, then, trust and 
be trusted again, .should be the theory of the present hour. 

The Representative Halls of the nation must resound with the echo of State voices and 
precepts. These political constellations of American genius and statesmanship must 
en.shrine in radi.ance the great temple of human liberty. Our productive resources are 
such as to form the magnet of wealth and enterprise which shall attract the Old World to 
our shores. Our mechanical skill is such as will maintain the artizans of distant lands. 
Shall we, at such a moment as this, pause to consider upon the mere ipse dixit of political 



10 

theorists, the best policy to pursue? We are not only legislating for millions of our 
own countrymen— but upon the issue as to whether nationality or sectionality gains pre- 
domwiance. The subjects of European rule are in waiting. Diplomacy that shall utterly 
disregard all personal favors — secular patronage— and avail itself of those virtues employed 
in the administrations of Washington, Jefferson, and their most worthy colleagues, can be 
the only dispensing agent of power suitable to the emergencies of the time. Their talents 
were rendered immortal -because their best efforts were exerted for the perpetuation of 
fraternal feelings between the sections and communities. 

We must maintain a union in spirit as well as name. Persecution ever fails to subserve 
to advantage the dominant party that uses it. The destruction of a social and domestic 
organization such as tliat the South possessed under the g.arb of slavery, has left a gap to 
be filled up. It must be done judiciously. Public declamation of censure upon its past 
enormities does not relieve us of the burden of future consequences in this regard. In 
doing this, no demand is made of us to sacrifice the white man's governmentfor the benefit 
of the black. 

" Necessity," it is said " is the mother of invention." This I accept in its fullest sense, 
and in addition, proclaim it the common providence and agency for good, that equalizes to 
a common level, the different grades of oDli'gations and conditions that affect either the ^ 
public or private states of man, individually ; to society, collectively, and to government. ' 
Our differeaces, already, are fast decreasing. Our hope and destiny, which we share in 
common, bestows an undivided estate. Our methods for determining foregone conclusions 
on present and future questions, are the most noticeable and radical differences between 
us. The plans for reconstruction presented, are most prolific. The practical facilities fur- 
nished, most meagre. It may be owing to the fact of my not being an expert at this sort 
of business, that keeps mo from appreaiatiug the fact that the Government stands in any 
particular need of reconstruction ; but from the best researches the mind is capable of 
making through public prints, I have come to the conclusion that.the Union was not dis- 
solved either prior to, or at the close of the war, or since its termination. Should this 
prove to be the case, the doctrine of full representation is the only rational one to be en- 
tertained — being firmly convinced that the check-reins of restraint, which are held by virtue 
of both congressional and executive power, are sufficient at any period of our existence to 
euccessfuUy'liold in abeyance acts of disloyalty, whether malritested through southern rep- 
resentation or mere party inclination. It is, therefore, not feasible by the aid of extra- 
neous influences to make the least attempt to remodel that which is within itself self-correct- 
ing. 

THE DUTIES AND DAHGEKS OF THE EOUE. 

One word with regard to the duties and dangers of the hour, upon which the best rhet- 
oric of political alarmists has been so copiously used. The obligations between man and 
man and man and government are left unimpaired. The war has neither multiplied nor 
detracted from the nature of those reciprocal pledges which identifies the citizens of a 
republic with the republic itself. The cause of human liberty, the judi«ious use of tha 
rights of suffrage, the decision of superior an^ petty courts, conOTessional enactments, 
the veto power of the President, are, in their broadest amplitude, the same as formerly. 
Appointments to fill civil ofiices of state by the Executive, with the patronage he hol^s at 
bis command, are counterbalanced by such measures as are passed by a tvvo.-thirds vote of 
those who represent the expiressed wishes of a sound constituency. All vital issues affecting 
the interests of the country are with the people. There can be nothing outside of them, or 
not comprised in their judgment or decisions through the ballot. The Jeffersonian doctrine 
that government is forma.n, and not man for government, is the only true pjrinciple upon 
which the individual as well as the collective right* of man are justly founded. Tariffs 
are regulated with the view solely to represent and protect in the best manner possible the 
interests of home industry and international traffic. A nation's commerce absorbs and 
attracts the vital energies of the world. It promotes the ends of civilization and friendly 
intercourse. In this our political duties and purposes are clearly defined, our motives 
unimpeachable. Our ideas are cosmopolitanizecf. The work-shops .and manufactories of 
the North, the fertile fields of agriculture in the South, proclaim the productive interests of 
the country to depend upon the united zeal and action of sectionjil communities, where 
there exists no practical inequality, defining political rights. Now, in lieu of this, we are 
urged to establish such restrictions as shall be instrumental in depressing the energies of 
a people. In this manner the future blows we would direct against our enemies result iq 
home thrusts at ourselves. Our point of observation should be from past experience ; not 
from the ruling passions of the present. It is not by any means a sure method to enrion 



11 

one pocket by robbing the other one of its contents, especially when we are compelled to 
wear the garment ourselves. The tax upon cotton will become as odious as Hood's cry for 
beef — the- market about as profitable to those interested. If we are not guarded, the official 
acts of the Government will resolve it into some mighty vampyre, exhausting the living 
to feed dead interests. 

The danger in this present crisis of our national history is in legislating too much. We 
prune the tife out of a young tree frequently to confer upon it imaginary symmetry. We 
impair a nation's solidity much in the same manner as the refractory rays of heat dissolve 
a cake of congealed water, by introducing forced issues and projecting foreign elements, 
and that when neither answers to any extent the purposes for which they ^yer6 intended. 

The nation has survived, through its great carnival of blood, to engage in crusades of 
ideas. We exult over our possessions of millions of acres awaiting but those periodical 
tidal streams of imigration that seek an outlet upon our shores. These we welcome, while 
at the same time it is proposed to exert a political espionage over tho.se who are to the 
manor born ! Domestic and political economy raise up through virtue of its daily neces- 
sities the advocates'of power to supply its demands. The fears entertained by the radical 
party in power lest they should be overwhelmed by the toils of their unarmed enemies re- 
minds me of Addison's description of a group of persons entertaining one another upon 
the subject of gliosts until their hallucinations became frightfully distinct so that they were 
torrified at their ovv.n shadows. 

The entire vitality of party radicalism is comprised in the one word — Reconstruction. 
The most imperative plea urged in defense of our national progress and prosperity in the 
future is that one looking to complete restoration. May our reason's deliberate reflec- 
tions assist us to the consummation of this one purpose. Disloyalty, tending to thwart the 
common ends of justice and the rights of its eitizen dependants, is by no means a prevail- 
ing element in the South. Sentiments originate from a common source. The filtering 
process alone changes their complexion. Invasive policies insult our habits and prejudices. 
Dictatorial legislation, where it runs directly counter to the fundamental principles of gov- 
ernment, is suited for vassals — not freemen ! 

EADICAIISM AN AGITATOB NOT A PACIFIEE. 

When the mind does not recognize fealty to the usages and conventionalities of society 
the sentimentalisms of popular sophistry, or even the accepted interpretations of human 
and Divine law, if it would not incur tbe penalties and reproaches of those with whom it 
honestly differs for mere opinion's sake, it must treat them as entitled at least to leniency of 
judgment and honesty of purpose. I do not admire discursive tactics or vituperative ex- 
pressions. Either or both defeat the chances of gaining the best conceptions which other- 
wise might become our possession. 

There is a species of radicalism plainly and most disgustingly manifested in science, re- 
ligion, politics, and philosophy, whose proselyting influences are no doubt very great, yet 
also very destructive to mental vigor and liberal intention. The fact is we need human- 
izing. A most insufferable degree of pride and selfishness seems everywhere enthroned, 
and it does not admit of our making neighbors and friends. Every department of human- 
ity was intended for fellowship by nature, but society places them like fossils occupying 
peculiar strata. 

Geology has brought to light the decadence of centuries. Divine thought and mental 
research must restore that broken link to perfectness connecting the human and Divine 
government of man. Let us cease playing at hide and seek, then, with our fancies and 
imagination, and dispell the lingering illusion from our minds that we are making success- 
ful inroads upon the economy of Providence. We will ever find upon the first deliberate 
investigation that not one link in this great chain of cause and effect has been decreased ; 
and the sooner such senseless habits lease the better. 

Casualties are panoramic of time's successive days. Their mandates proclaimed through 
the common agensies of being are stern and inexorable; yet they affect not the harmony 
or'uniformity of purpose of those wise estimates which are the Divine ultimates of eternity. 
The criminal, only after the stern sentence of the law's extreme penalty has been passed 
upon him, realizes that what he deemed as cheats practiced upon his fellows were only such 
npon himself. The Divine code, unlike our moral, possesses more intrinsic value than to 
be thus depreciated at will. Is not this a very fortunate state of affairs ? By this method 
principle stands vindicated and vice denounced. Grief sounds her requiem of regrets over 
the dissevered ties of domestic happiness. Joy chaunts its successes in some gladsome life 
Boug whose measure is never full. They are as some dissolving agencies of power ever 



12 

presenting to our recognition passions clieckered waste. In this we hp.ve emotional anti- 
podes. Extract, if you will, all that is mediatorial and apply it to governmental legis- 
lation, and you will at once cease the most fruitless search man ever made in hope of find- 
ing your most devoted landmarks unscorched, or a single household or homestead wherein 
the children of a common bounty were nourished unchanged. 

Legislative exactions begin just where they ought not. They commence at the circum- 
ference and approach the centre. In consequence they administer to extremes and operate 
through extremists. Whereas by reversing liie order the re.^ult would be very different. 
Make a plain road as you advance. Trust not to merely blazed timber. Subserve the 
highest interests of those communities through whose territory j'ou travel, by recognizing 
common rights that must minister to common ends. The greatest good to the greatest 
number is a most excellent maxim ; I have heard it proclaimed often, but I have seldom 
seen it practiced, even by those of the diplomatic persuasion. 

Would it not be better to cease discussions altogether? What are they but mere pas- 
sages of wind rushing to fill up some supposed vacuum where noneexists, thereby disturb- 
ing the loose straws upon some great political floor. Mere superficialfties, I assure you. 

Human rights have a broad basis, and will ever sustain a free nation of people if 
they, themselves, will maintain the proper relationship toward the carrying out of its uni- 
versal and practical interests. When, in the name of common sense and reason, (if you 
will not think me irreverent in disturbing the memory of such illustrious dead,) will we 
make an effort to abolish special classifications, and look only to that broad nationality of 
condition and circumstance, upon which true citizenship has reared its imperishable altar? 

What is government but the aggregated intelligence of individuals, who choose to 
combine their pliysical force and mental vigor in the establishment of laws and uniform 
regulations? What is true society but the combination of this same idea, its orbit of ac- 
tion being only more restricted? Why make reciprocity treaties, if mutual benefits are 
not its purposes ? Is not accord desirable in the successful consummation of either private 
or public enterprises ? If it is not so, then are all the experiences of life but a blank, and 
all our efforts at self-sustenance a most miserable failure ? The hnman voice is a mere 
hollow echo ; the soul but a i^ry husk ; the heart a sealed tomb of sickly sentimentalities. 
Alas! from the aspect of our unnatural animosities, many would even now surrender 
hope, who never despaired even in the darkest hour of fatricidal strife, were it not that a 
superior embodiment attaches itself to that class of unverbal realities, that move a uni- 
verse to action. 

What recks it for me to take a retrospective glance through the fast dissolving eras of 
the past, if it is not done for the purpose of memorializing some bright, particular epoch 
amid the checkered waste, that we may cherish it in our memory as. something valued, be- 
cause it has survived the decadences so thickly strewn in its pathway. Such are the 
expectations of the American people to-day. Their ancestors enjoyed a heritage of prin- 
ciple. Their heart-throbbings were made quick with joy. Piivileges were offered never 
to be forgotten. A republic was born to them, under whose enkindling smile of genius, it 
was destined to restore manhood and statesmanship from the debris of a common ruin in 
the Old World. A sea of blood has now been crossed. Passion's wild frenzy has ceased 
its work of mortal immolation upon the field. Must it continue to secretly sharpen its 
dagger point in the council chambers of the land ; and sanctify Grecian sacrifices by re- 
hearsal to appease false honor? A common ruin awaits us if we do not pause. 

North, East, West, South are not the mere points of a compass. They are the four pri- 
mates of principle and power, and demand a common respect. It is these tributary effects 
of misguided legislation, singling out in the most p.inizan planner fresh sacrifices to be 
made, that does with sufficient reason, cause the worst -appiv-'uensions to be felt for the is- 
sues of the future. Were it but a strife of words, its subtile pulse of mischief could be 
more easily regulated. It is a war of organic conditions ! and if persisted in, must prove a 
whirlpool of destruction. 

Commercial enterprises, mercantile pursuits, trade, traffic, and intercourse, in all their 
varied departments, have their periodical high tide.? and low tides ; yet, in the practical 
sense, seek a common level. Thfe system of tariffs laid on imports or exports respectively 
have their advantages and disadvantages. All soberly executed public measures, touch- 
ing either foreign or domestic relationships, are made botli to agree and disagree with 
the varied interests they are intended to subserve. All this is legitimate, because 
its general rule of action promotes a healthy tone to objects and things as they exist. 
If, so to speak, a circulatory sentiment passes current and 'is made to pervade the marts of 
civilization and intercourse throughout the world, do we need any "reconstruction" in 
this most excellent method of sociality and political economy? Can civil tribunals, in- 



13 

vested ivith tlie advantages of high judic'l faculties, fail to permeate with their energies 
the intelligence of a people desii ous of self-government, that a quasi military rule must 
Btillbe perpetuated? Dogmas mav, for the time being, perversely seal up from the people's 
appreciation the esisten^ce of the facts, the rights, the interests of communities. But 
generations unborn to the distempers of such misrule must break up the seal again and 
scan the outline of such crime-sojled jjages as faction is now writing. 

A critical examination into the nature of these pre,=ent strifes and difficulties cannot fail to 
result in the conviction that the mark of an oppressor's heel has been left where it ought 
not. Crimes are punishable, errors correctable. Keparation must be made. The Christian's 
God is not appeased in blood. Fidelity to early remembrances are not fostered by the 
mandates of those who are so prodigal of their own riglits and destructive to those of 
others. Should the guiltless only dictate, into what a profound silence would the nation 
relapse. Sliould eacli one of us resolve to expiate his folly, what vast numbers would 
congregate to partake of such a public sacrament. Virtue, as some fair and etherial nymph 
called from those grottoes where the brightest hopes of humanity lie buried, would weep over 
th^ realizations of such enormities in penitent attitude before her shrine. The measure of 
justice is not full. Local boundary lines must be covered up. The primeval pathways 
over which the sainted statesmen of yore carried tiieir heavy burdens of responsibility to 
public ti-ust and office must bereclain'ied to recognition and use. This is the demand upon 
us. It must be obeyed, or we are lost to honor and the principles of a well-balanced gov- 
ernment. • 

THE LAST APPEAL IS TO THE PEOPLE. 

But we must conclude. The 39th session of Congress is about to adjourn. Prior to its 
convening, war, as some fierce sirocco, had spent its force, after consuming much of the 
substance of American prosperity. The present moment is pregnant with issues which are 
directly connected with the consUtutional interests of the people ; aiid to whom it stands 
in the attitude of some common guardian. The conservative estimate of the country 
looked forward in expectation to the time frhen American statesmanship and just diplo- 
macy should so direct a nation, in council assembled, as to preclude any further possibility 
of disaster to the common interests of the people. lias this well-seasoned patience of 
expectation been rewarded? Has endurance of the past and present state of civil agonies 
and political uncertainties been justly recompensed? The measured results already brought, 
forward give us a 'negative answer. The highest prerogatives of citizenship have become 
as dead ashes in the scales of justice. Two millions of human lives have been sacrificed 
for the maintenance of a Union in which was involved the recognition of universal rights 
to a people. What is the sequel to this bloody drama? It has failed in its subsequent 
intentions! It offers us only restricted legislation! It makes still further demands upon 
us for the sacrifice of manhood and nationality. 

This is no exaggerated sketch of the times in which we live ; no political contortion of 
facts to suit tlie special purposes of party. We have become enslaved to ideas, and our 
best thoughts enslaved in the mere expediencies of the hour. Our desire should be the 
establishment of a 2Jcrmancnt peace. AVe desire restoration in fact — not merely in name. 
The necessities of war acted as some di.sastrous paralysis upon the body politic. The 
peaceful pursuits of agriculture lost their supports ; and instead of the happy " harvest 
tome" gatherings of yore, upon whose scenes peace and plenty smiled so benignantly, 
dread carnage was rife ; and where the white sails of commerce carried its, most substan- 
tial greetings, were miglity armaments seeking common destruction. This comes to us as 
a startling picture of the p't; yet, notwithstanding, it bears to us valuable admonitions 
for a safe guidance in the luture. 

Have tlie people become so inert, and their energies so imbecile, as to neglect their duty 
toward an estate inherited of freemen? -It is to their intelligent and just decisions only 
can we look for a positive good. 

The ' right of the people to peaceably assemble, either for free discussion, redress, or 
action, cannot be recognised and acted upon at a more opportune moment than the present, 
■when negoti.itors disagree. The subjects for whose benefit these negotiations are carried on, 
must of riecessity, as protection to themselves, desire such means as shall promote the end 
contemplated. I say subjects, for how otherwise can any man look upon the loyal or once 
disloyal people of Tion-repr.esented States? Conventions and ballot-b(ixes are the only 
true speaking-trumpets with which we can reach the ears of those who would further 
jeopardize our liberty. The former, as expressive of popular sentiment to measure and 
principle ; the latter as their registered verdict. 

The President or Congress mu6t be reconciled to .one distinctive rule of action. To 



14 

avert anarchy in gnvernment we must have bm. one ruler; and in accoi'dance with Ameri- 
can politics this ruler should be chosen by the people. It may be said, in reply, all this 
has been done. The facts in the case, however, show only a representation m part, and 
not in full, of the people's virishes in this matter. 

If we propose to admit the State of Tennessee into our deliberations and receive it as a 
polilical'adjunct again, why not all? If all, why not (ull representation? This glaring 
inconsistency does not pertain to our national codes. The people of unbiased minds hare 
yet to place it where it properly belongs. It is known only under the phase of radicalism. 
It pertains, exclusivel}f, to party. 

It has been said by some Senator of this same extreme persuasion, that as a nation of 
people we were largely endowed with religious and moral qualities. I hope, most sincerely, 
that his researches have been of such a character as to enstamp reliability upon this as- 
sumption. In the present crisis, we not only stand in need of the prayers and sincere 
wishes of all good men and women, but if it were offered us, we would accept of the aid 
of his persuasive eloquence for the colored race, to ask for a further extension of freedom 
and representation for the white. While we must fully agree with him in the belief that 
this is a white man's government, and that it is the wisestand best policy to legislate for 
five instead of one, we are, at the same time, somewhat e.\ercised in our minds if he repre- 
sents his part accurately. And if sn, what becomes of all such sentiments, never having 
seen any such incorporated in his or their public methods of reconstruction ? 

Durifig the war, moral and religious men asked for peace, and since peace has been 
vouchsafed, he is still clamorous for reconstruction at the sacrifice of clearly defined ri»ht 
and common human hope. 

The present Executive was considered to be a most marvelously proper man by this 
same moral and religious sentiment, to fill the position of trust under the Government. 
This belief was generated during the administration of Mr. Lincoln. As military gov- 
ernor of Tennessee he retained his character unimpeached for loyalty to principle and un- 
impaired in faithfulness to office. His best efforts were exerted,' ment.-illy and physically, 
in behalf of the Government he represented. •W'hat are the objections to him as'a Pres'i- 
dent? They may be..embraced in two sentences: Opposition to seetionalism ! Desire for 
restoration ! 

Tliere are periods in our estate of life, whether acting in a private or official capacity, 
•when our best intentions are misjudged ; our most sincere efi'orts misinterpreted. This "is 
a common experience. The test of appreciation must be subjected to the people. We 
must make our decision upon two vital points of importance: . Whether we arc to have an 
imdirided nationality andrepresentaiion, or a divided onef WJiether a conservative rule of 
actiuii is to govern and direct our public measures, or sectional fanaticism prevail f You are 
afiirmatively represented by the President— negatively by Congress. 

It is not a mere question involving partisan interests. Upon it depends public secu- 
rity, peace, and the legislation of good'to the greatest number. Past differences should be 
no remaining obstacle to prevent this much desired object. The highest interests of a peo- 
ple are languishing under the present order of necessities in which the whole country is 
involved. 

National greatness, not unlike domestic virtues, is exhibited to its be.st advantage in the 
heart and consciences of those upon whom its influences are exerted. The true index to 
the.se desirable results is not found in these jarring elements of discord, which have made 
the walls of Congress resound with the most turbulent evidences of strife. It is but a 
delusive hope to promise ourselves that the 40th Congress will witness the last greatstrain 
in American politics. The present inequality of rights and privileges is not suited for 
such an agreeable change. Taxation without representation cannot serve as a basis of 
settlement. Radicalism must meet with a rebuke from the intelligent decision of a people 
who know their rights and will dare maintain them through proper and peaceable 
channels. 

The northern philanthropist who has devoted his best energies in eulogizing the reti- 
cent qualities of the black race for self-government should at once change the complexion 
of bis effusions and minister to the millions of impoverished, unrepresented whites, who 
claim their homes within the bro.ad domain of national territory. Here true manhood 
has no place for charity. Its demand is for justice. The same justice which was demanded 
of King George III. and the acts of a British Parliament in behalf of the colonists. These 
acts were repugnant to thorn. They are none the less so to us now. 

Formerly the principles of civil and religious liberty were but a conception awaiting a . 
pr.actical experiment. It has been successfully made. Upon its fundamental basis we 
stand to-day. While we do not question the babilimeots of power which clothe a Con- 



15 

gress v.'itii a right to regulate the precepts of government, we at the same time do not 
accept its right of unrestricted monopoly. 

Eiglits are vested from the people. It is to the people again our appeal is directed. 
We stand greatly in need of such an endorsement. The internal direction of affairs thua 
heoorae self-poised, requiring no extraneous action to justify official acts. Congressional 
proceedings are only democratic in policy when they represent the entire interests of con- 
federated States. Civil government has been renewed in those States which attempted 
secession. Simultaneous with it must be a renewed fidelity to its unimpaired obliga- 
tions. There are no reserved inerits in the case. It is for us to meet the cognizant facts 
of the present. Past issues should never survive the necessities which gave them birth. 

Believing most sincerely that there is much happines.s in store for us as a nation if we 
are true to ourselves, and tliat the sires of the revolution created the great fabric of the com- 
monwealth for the elevation of its citizens, and not for their degradation, I await, gentle- 
men, the progress of events with the same anxiety as a benighted traveler, who has 
passed through the strifes of the day, and expects to meet the solace of friends, and not the 
imprecations of enemies. 



54 



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